The present invention relates to an automobile seat, particularly to a collapsible seat which can increase load space.
In order to keep a large space adequate to accommodate a heavy load in a vehicle or to provide an easy entry seat arrangement, a seat back is folded forwardly onto a seat cushion and then the seat back folding seat is often collapsed or forwardly tilted.
Conventionally, a seat of this type comprises an axle mechanism disposed between the seat and a floor of the vehicle for rotatably supporting the seat with respect to the vehicle floor, a rotating member rotatably supported on the seat, a lock mechanism disposed in the rotating member and attachable to or detachable from the vehicle floor, and a linkage mechanism disposed between the vehicle floor and the rotating member to rotate the rotating member with respect to the seat. In such a conventional device, in a state where a person is sitting in the seat the seat is arranged in a manner that the seat cushion is substantially parallel to the vehicle floor, and in addition, the rotating member is protruded from the seat. The lock mechanism and the vehicle floor is in an interlocking state, thereby restricting rotation of the seat by the axle mechanism with respect to the vehicle floor. In this state, by operating the lock mechanism to release the interlocking state of the lock mechanism and the vehicle floor and rotating the seat with respect to the vehicle floor, the seat is arranged so that the seat cushion is upright with respect to the vehicle floor and placed in a "folded-up" state. At this time the rotating member is rotated together with rotation of the seat due to the operation of the linkage mechanism and is arranged housed within the seat.
An example of the automobile seat of this type is disclosed in the specification of Japanese Utility Model Laid Open Publication (KOKAI) No. Hei6-50963 (1994).
However, with the above-described conventional device, in the folded-up state the seat is free to rotate in any way with respect to the vehicle floor. For this reason, an accessory such as a support rod or the like is required in order to maintain the seat in the folded-up state. As a result, the number of troublesome jobs for the user such as attaching and detaching the accessory when changing from a seating state to the folded-up state and vice versa etc. are requested and reducing usability.
Consequently, the present invention has its technical subject matter to improve the usability of the folding automobile seat when modifying it from a seating state to a folded-up state.